I’m beyond that 600 thousand the cars recalled for a killer airbags produced by the Japanese company Takataa Japanese company that went bankrupt in 2017 and is at the center of a case that has lasted since 2004. The Citroën has in fact sent a letter to thousands of owners of C3 And DS3 inviting them not to use the car due to the risk of injury and death. At the center is the risk of failure in the airbag inflator which over the years has forced brands to recall tens of millions of cars.
Over 600 thousand cars recalled due to Takata killer airbags
There Citroën he called back further 600 thousand cars in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa due to a killer airbags which some of its models are equipped with, produced by the Japanese company Takata.
In the letter sent to May 2024 owners of the cars, specifically the Citroën C3 and DS3 produced between 2009 and 2019, are told that there is a risk of “serious injury or death” due to a failure of the inflator.
The letter sent by Citroën to thousands of owners of the C3 and DS3 models
“The chemical substances contained in these devices” would in fact risk “deteriorating over time”, with the risk of breaking and inflating with “excessive force in the event of an accident”.
The beginning of Takata-gate in 2004
The beginning of Takata-gate can be traced back to 2004when an executive at the company, which had been making ammonium nitrate airbag devices since the late 1990s, admitted to manipulating test data.
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In the 2008 the first cases of malfunction in the United States, with the first dead in 2009 due to freak airbag explosions and Honda’s recall of hundreds of thousands of vehicles.
After several investigations and manipulations, in 2015 the recalls arrived 42 million of vehicles and the company pleaded guilty in court in 2017, paying $1 billion in fines and failing mid-year.
Ammonium nitrate to save money
The gas ammonium nitrate it would be at the center of the inflation problem, which over time has caused around fifty deaths and over 400 serious injuries and could affect 100 million cars worldwide.
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To save money and space, in the late 1990s Takata replaced it with the ammonium nitrate the previous gas used in the devices produced, sodium azide.
However, ammonium nitrate is sensitive to heat and thehumiditywhich increase the pressure, and upon triggering the ignition time of the mass is much more rapid and violent than normal, which is why in some cases the explosion of the airbag has also caused the death of passengers.
In 2023 Volkswagen recalled 270 thousand cars, while Stellantis would have set aside 951 million for the recall and warranty campaigns for Takata airbags.
Photo source: iStock
